Posts tagged ‘u3o8’

With an option agreement now in place, Belmont Resources TSXV:BEA gains a new partner and new money for the Kibby Basin lithium property, 65 kilometres north of Nevada’s Clayton Valley. The deal allows MGX Minerals CSE:XMG to earn an initial 25% interest in the 2,760-hectare property by spending up to $300,000. Work would include a deep test hole on a geophysical anomaly found earlier this year. Should that program meet success, MGX may increase its stake to 50% with up to $300,000 in further expenditures and drilling a second deep test hole. The company would then become operator of a 50/50 joint venture.

Ready to get boots on the ground soon, the Kibby Basin crew will test a geophysical anomaly found earlier this year.

An initial drill program last year consisted of two holes totalling 624 metres. Core samples graded between 70 ppm and 200 ppm Li2O, with 13 of 25 samples exceeding 100 ppm. This year’s program of deep-sensing magnetotelluric geophysics identified a conductive zone that starts at about 500 metres in depth.

Should the JV come into fruition, other potential duties for MGX could include additional exploration, operating a test well, and installing and operating a pilot plant. MGX’s wide range of assets includes a proprietary process to recover lithium, magnesium and other minerals from a variety of brines. The JV would gain access to the process and would also market any lithium or other commodities potentially produced.

“This agreement puts Belmont on secure footing with regard to funding the next stage of evaluation of the Kibby property and, at the same time, enables us to get a significant leg-up on lithium production by partnering with one of the leaders in extraction technology,” commented Belmont CEO James Place.

MGX will also invest $200,000 in a Belmont private placement. In April the latter company closed the final tranche of a private placement totalling $198,000.

Belmont’s portfolio also includes the Mid-Corner/Johnson Croft property in New Brunswick, where historic, non-43-101 sampling suggests zinc, copper and cobalt potential. Additionally the company shares a 50/50 interest with International Montoro Resources TSXV:IMT in two Saskatchewan uranium properties.

With permits now in hand, Belmont Resources TSXV:BEA expects to activate a rig on its Kibby Basin lithium project next month. Once completed, the boreholes may be converted to exploration wells to test for lithium brine aquifers.

Located 65 kilometres north of Nevada’s Clayton Valley, the 2,760-hectare property underwent deep-sensing magnetotelluric geophysics earlier this year, finding a conductive zone that starts at about 500 metres in depth. The program followed last year’s initial drill campaign that sunk two holes totalling 624 metres. Core samples graded between 70 ppm and 200 ppm Li2O, with 13 of 25 samples surpassing 100 ppm.

The company has described the upcoming program as “work of a significant scope” that includes water well installation and monitoring.

In May Belmont announced the appointment of Ian Graham to the company’s advisory board. A former principal geologist with De Beers’ South African division, he also spent 15 years with Rio Tinto NYSE:RIO where he took part in evaluation and pre-development projects including the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories and the Resolution copper deposit in Arizona. He also oversaw permitting for the Eagle nickel mine in Michigan and played a key role in the initial economic assessment for the Bunder diamond project in India. More recently Graham served as CEO of United Energy Corp, which held a Nevada lithium project.

Belmont also holds the Mid-Corner/Johnson Croft property in New Brunswick, where historic, non-43-101 sampling has shown zinc, copper and cobalt potential. In Saskatchewan the company shares a 50/50 interest with International Montoro Resources TSXV:IMT in the Crackingstone and Orbit Lake uranium properties.

Belmont closed the final tranche of a private placement totalling $198,000 in April.

Supported by a successful financing and encouraging geophysical and drill results, Belmont Resources TSXV:BEA prepares to advance its Kibby Basin lithium project on two fronts. The company now plans to sink up to five holes on the 2,760-hectare Nevada property while continuing lithium extraction discussions with other companies that have requested samples.

The drill campaign would be Kibby Basin’s second, following two holes from last year. Core samples graded between 70 ppm and 200 ppm Li2O. Thirteen of 25 samples surpassed 100 ppm, “indicating that the sediments could be a potential source of lithium for the underlying aquifers,” the company stated.

Since then a magnetotelluric survey covered some 36 square kilometres, adding geophysical detail to a 2016 gravity survey and showing a conductive zone that starts about 500 metres in depth.

Backing the campaign will be fresh financing. The second tranche of private placements totalling $198,000 closed this month.

In New Brunswick last November, Belmont acquired the Mid-Corner/Johnson Croft property, where historic, non-43-101 sampling showed prospectivity for zinc, copper and cobalt. Along with International Montoro Resources TSXV:IMT, Belmont shares a 50/50 interest in two Saskatchewan uranium properties, Crackingstone and Orbit Lake.

With about 3,500 metres planned, Pistol Bay Mining TSXV:PST has drilling now underway at northwestern Ontario’s VMS-rich Confederation Lake greenstone belt. Three holes of about 500 metres each will supply material from the project’s Arrow zone for preliminary metallurgical tests. From there the rig shifts roughly eight kilometres west to the Fredart zone, aka the Copperlode A zone.

Last year the company released a 43-101 resource for Arrow that used a base case 3% zinc-equivalent cutoff for an inferred category showing:

A January option agreement expands Pistol Bay’s Confederation Lake package by 3,700 hectares, for a total of about 20,700 hectares. The new turf comprises part of last year’s VTEM-Plus survey, the area’s first state-of-the-art regional geophysics. Some of the available, non-43-101 past intercepts from the acquisition’s Wasp Lake trend include 2.96% zinc and 0.04% copper over 2.79 metres, as well as 1.12% zinc and 0.04% copper over 7.19 metres. The same trend showed a strong conductive response on the VTEM-Plus results, Pistol Bay reported.

Another positive geophysical response came from the acquisition’s Fly Lake zone, where historic, non-43-101 assays reached as high as 1.36% zinc and 0.17% copper over 11.5 metres, along with 1.51% zinc and 0.08% copper over 8.9 metres. The zone appears to remain open along strike and at depth, the company stated. Nine other geophysical anomalies, meanwhile, appear to lack previous drilling.

The January option follows 5,860 hectares of staking last September that covers multiple conductors and IP anomalies identified in the airborne survey, as well as parallel conductors or extensions of known conductors.

Last month the company announced an amended agreement with a Rio Tinto NYSE:RIO subsidiary which will increase its hold on the C4, C5 and C6 uranium properties in Saskatchewan from 75% to 100%. The deal will bring Pistol Bay $1 million.

In January the company also announced progress with its PB Blockchain subsidiary as it builds “a suite of blockchain products to address needs that are particular to the data management and security of mining/oil and gas companies.”

It’s hardly a boom time scenario but mineral exploration within Canada should see a healthy 6% spending increase this year, according to recent federal government figures. Info supplied by companies shows an estimated total of $2.238 billion planned for exploration and deposit appraisal this year, compared with $2.111 billion in 2017. The second annual increase in a row, it’s far less dramatic than last year’s 29.6% leap.

Together Quebec and Ontario account for more than half the spending, with la belle province getting 27.3% of last year’s total and 29.3% of this year’s, while Ontario got 24.9% and 26.5%.

Some runners-up were British Columbia (12.2% of Canada’s total in 2017 and 13% in 2018), Saskatchewan (9% and 7.4%) and Yukon (7.8% and 7.7%).

Proportionately Manitoba enjoyed the greatest increase, a 42% jump from $38.5 million to $54.7 million, in a performance at odds with the province’s most recent Fraser Institute ranking. Less spectacularly but still impressive, the figures show Quebec climbing 13.9% from $576.5 million to $656.7 million. British Columbia gets a 12.9% increase from $257.7 million to $290.9 million, and Ontario 12.7% from $526.2 million to $593 million.

Some disappointments include Saskatchewan, falling 13% from $189.9 million to $165.1 million. Nunavut plunged 34.6% from $169.3 million to $110.7 million.

Nunavut has to address its land access issues. In the NWT, work on the proposed Mineral Resources Act and other legislation must be to improve the investment climate. Settling long-outstanding land claims and reducing the over 30% of lands off limits to development would also help, as would proactive marketing by indigenous governments.—Gary Vivian, president, NWT andNunavut Chamber of Mines

Addressing the territory’s performance along with its neighbour’s 10% drop, Northwest Territories and Nunavut Chamber of Mines president Gary Vivian said, “Nunavut has to address its land access issues. In the NWT, work on the proposed Mineral Resources Act and other legislation must be to improve the investment climate. Settling long-outstanding land claims and reducing the over 30% of lands off limits to development would also help, as would proactive marketing by indigenous governments.”

Combining figures for mine complex development with exploration and deposit appraisal, this year’s projected country-wide total rises 8.9% to $14.9 billion, the highest number in the four years of data released in this survey.

Commodities getting the most money are precious metals, although at a nearly 1.5% decrease to $1.35 billion this year from $1.37 billion last year. A more drastic drop was uranium, down 23.4% to $103.7 million. Base metals saw a 38.4% surge to $406.9 million. Coal’s projected for a 31.1% boost to $70.8 million.

Exploration and deposit appraisal expenses considered for the survey include field work, engineering, economics, feasibility studies, the environment, land access and associated general expenses. Natural Resources Canada did not consider work for extensions of known reserves.

Covering a different period with different methodology than Natural Resources Canada, a study by EY, the B.C. government and the Association for Mineral Exploration calculated a 20% increase in B.C. exploration spending from 2016 to 2017.

Recently received geophysical results will help Belmont Resources TSXV:BEA select drill targets for its Kibby Basin lithium property in Nevada. Described as a “full tensor magnetotelluric technology that acquires resistivity data in the 10 kHz to 0.001 Hz frequency band,” the survey covered about 36 square kilometres to depths of three kilometres over a playa basin and some adjoining turf.

While a 2016 gravity survey suggested the presence of a basin about 4,000 metres deep, the new results “clearly map a more conductive zone beginning at approximately 500 metres’ depth,” Belmont stated. Targets for a 2018 drill program on the 2,760-hectare property are being considered where potential brine contacts are closest to the playa surface, the company added.

The world’s largest economy and strongest military has taken another step to mitigate some surprising vulnerabilities. On February 16 the U.S. Department of the Interior released a draft list of 35 minerals deemed critical to American well-being. The move follows December’s presidential executive order calling for a “federal strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals.” In response the U.S. Geological Survey compiled the new list, which now awaits input from the public. Americans have until March 19 to respond.

“The work of the USGS is at the heart of our nation’s mission to reduce our vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals,” commented the DOI’s Tim Petty. “Any shortage of these resources constitutes a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the United States.”

The list defines “critical” as “a non-fuel mineral or mineral material essential to the economic and national security of the United States, the supply chain of which is vulnerable to disruption, and that serves an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economy or national security.”

Among them are “aluminum—used in almost all sectors of the economy; the platinum group metals—used for catalytic agents; rare earth elements—used in batteries and electronics; tin—used as protective coatings and alloys for steel; and titanium—overwhelmingly used as a white pigment or as a metal alloy.”

Just one day before Donald Trump issued the order, the USGS released a nearly 900-page report, the first thorough examination of the subject since 1973, detailing 23 critical minerals. All 23 made the new list, with 12 newcomers including scandium, uranium and tungsten. Rare earths come under a single category of 17 elements. The list can be seen here, with links to USGS reports on each mineral.

Speaking with ResourceClips.com days after the president’s order, Jeff Green called it the country’s “most substantive development in critical mineral policy in 20 years.” The U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel, former USAF commander and Washington defence lobbyist added that a new critical minerals policy would largely benefit American companies and supply chains. But he pointed out that Trump “also said that international co-operation and partnerships with our strongest allies will be really important.”

Now being mobilized, an electromagnetic survey will help target brine aquifers on Belmont Resources’ (TSXV:BEA) Kibby Basin property. The company describes Quantec Geoscience’s Spartan AMT/MT method as “a full tensor magnetotelluric technology that acquires resistivity data in the 10 kHz to 0.001 Hz frequency band. The result is a measurement that is applicable from near-surface to potential depths of three kilometres or more.” Belmont credits Quantec with over 5,000 geophysical programs in over 50 countries.

Two holes sunk on Kibby Basin last year brought core samples between 70 ppm and 200 ppm lithium.

The Kibby Basin survey should take nine days, with another two weeks for an initial report.

The program follows a satellite data review and two-hole 2017 drill campaign on the 2,760-hectare Nevada property 65 kilometres north of Clayton Valley. Thirteen of 25 core samples surpassed 100 ppm lithium, “indicating that the sediments could be a potential source of lithium for the underlying aquifers,” the company stated.

A gravity survey the previous year suggested the property hosts a closed basin which the company later estimated to cover four square kilometres, extending to at least 1.5 kilometres in depth.

Last week Belmont announced its lawyers would request the annulment of a decision by the International Centre For Settlement Of Investment Disputes reported in August. The tribunal stated it had no jurisdiction in a dispute involving Belmont, EuroGas Inc and the Slovak Republic regarding Rozmin SRO’s ownership of the Gemerska Poloma talc deposit. Belmont seeks to be restored as a claimant in the arbitration proceedings.

The company also holds the Mid Corner-Johnson Croft property in New Brunswick, a prospect with some historic, non-43-101 zinc-copper-cobalt sampling results that has yet to undergo modern geophysics.

In northern Saskatchewan, Belmont and International Montoro Resources TSXV:IMT share a 50/50 stake in the Crackingstone and Orbit Lake uranium properties.

Belmont closed an oversubscribed private placement of $312,200 in December.